Ossie Davis 1917-2005: A Tribute to the Actor and Civil Rights Activist

Actor and civil rights activist, Ossie Davis has died. He was found in a hotel room in Miami Beach Friday, where he was making a movie. He was 87 years old.

For five decades, Ossie Davis had a distinguished career as an actor, playwright and director. Along with his wife, Ruby Dee, he was a renowned civil rights activist and an unforgettable figure in the African American struggle for equality.

He performed in some 80 movies, including six with director Spike Lee. Two months ago, he and Ruby Dee, were honored at the Kennedy Center for their lifelong contributions to theater, television and film, as well as for being models of courage and grace in the long struggle for equality in the United States.

Ossie Davis was born Dec. 18, 1917, in Cogdell, Georgia. His given name was meant to be Raiford Chatman Davis, but the registrar of births recorded what were supposed to be the initials, "R.C.," as "Ossie" and it remained his name ever since.

He grew up in the segregated south amid racism and the Ku Klux Klan. As a young man, he hitchhiked to Washington, D.C., to attend Howard University. He dropped out at the end of his junior year and moved to Harlem in New York City. In 1942, he was drafted into the Army where he spent much of World War II as a surgical technician in an Army hospital in Liberia.

After his discharge in 1945, he began career on the stage in New York where he met fellow actor, Ruby Dee. They married in December 1948 and were inseparable for the next 56 years.

In addition to their acting careers, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee had prominent roles on the nation's political stages. They participated in marches for racial equality throughout the South and participated in the 1963 March on Washington.

After Malcolm X was assassinated at a Harlem rally in 1965, Ossie Davis wrote and delivered a eulogy at his funeral. In 1968, he eulogized the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.

Despite being blacklisted briefly in the 1950s McCarthyism era, Davis often traveled to Washington to speak before congressional committees about the arts or about opportunities for people of color in Hollywood.

In 1992, Davis wrote a novel and in 1998 published an autobiography with his wife titled, "With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together." Davis continued his activism up until his death, most recently protesting the war in Iraq.

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